


The Invisible Lie

by Ginger Jam (skylite), skylite



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-05-17
Updated: 2001-05-17
Packaged: 2017-11-23 16:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/624256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylite/pseuds/Ginger%20Jam, https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylite/pseuds/skylite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Search for Cyclops has brought Scott Summers home.  Or has it? Only one X-Man suspects anything, and he's taking matters into his own hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Invisible Lie

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: Property of Marvel Comics. Used for entertainment purposes  
> only. Not to be reproduced for profit.
> 
> TIMEFRAME: Shortly after the end of "The Search for Cyclops" in the canon comics.

You don't live millennia without learning a thing or two about  
surviving.

This is a truth the rest of the X-Men haven't figured out yet. They're  
kids, you see. Compared to him. Compared to me. They haven't even  
lived a human lifespan yet, let alone multiple ones. Yeah, yeah,  
they're lucky with the whole bounce-back thing. X-Men have this great  
tendency to not stay dead. But it's still not the same as living  
centuries of time yourself.

You develop an understanding of people. Of human nature. Of how to fool  
people. How to trick them. How to hide in plain sight.

This is what Scott --

\--Apocalypse --

\--did.

To Jeannie.

*Nobody* does something like that to Jeannie and lives. Especially not  
now. Not after she'd been the only one to hold onto the hope. Not  
after she led us all over the world trying to find him. Without the  
rapport to follow like a star lighting her way home. With nothing but  
love and intuition to guide her.

She found him.

And it was the invisible lie.

He looked like Scott. He could act like Scott. He did a damn good  
impression of Scott. Enough to make me question my own senses.

But mannerisms don't lie. And neither does my nose.

Jeannie will probably never believe me.

No one will likely ever forgive me, even if the truth does come out.

Easy to rationalize. The little psycho with the berserker streak and  
the swiss-cheese mind. No matter I've fought for the dream since I  
learned of it. No matter I've fought back against being brainwashed  
and brain twisted and mind warped and mind wiped more times than I could  
count. And I guess that makes me suspect.

They know what I've survived and come through.

I should've thought it through further. I may be a good little X-Man  
who follows the dream...

...but Scott Summers was the first. The first student. The first X-Man.

 

The backbone of the dream, even to Charles.

It *was* Apocalypse.

It *was*.

The scent was wrong.

Or am I just rationalizing my anger at what he did to me?

Am I just looking for an easy out to vent my rage at his having made me  
his Death?

Hah. I should not be standing here, looking at my hands, thinking what  
Lady MacBeth thought.

This blood'll wash off. It always does.

But I've betrayed them all. They'll never believe it was anything but  
Scott. Even if I tell them I could smell Apocalypse.

But Jean... she'll get to live. She won't have that monster holding her  
and going through the motions of loving her until he got good and ready  
to make his move to subdue her or kill her.

There is that.

Small consolation.


End file.
